Toadstools, mushrooms, fungi, edible and poisonous; one thousand American fungi

toward base, which then tapers in a long rooting way. =Cap= umbilicate. Specimens identified by Professor Peck. Edible but tough and uninviting. Yields a good fungoid flavor to the water in which it is boiled. =H. gelatino´sum= Scop. Transferred to Tremelledon as T. gelatinosum, under which heading it is described and its edible qualities noted. [Illustration: Photographed by Dr. J.R. Weist. PLATE CXXXIV. HYDNUM CORALLOIDES. ] MERIS´MA. _Gr_—a division. (Very much branched or of an irregular form without a distinct margin.) =H. coralloi´des= Scop. (Plate CXXXIV.) 6–18 in. across. Tufts on wood. Pure shining white growing yellow with age, composed wholly of attenuated interlacing branches ½ in. at base, tapering to a point. =Spines= growing from one side of the branches, 3–4 lines in length, awl-shaped. =Spores= globose, 4–6µ diameter _Massee_. _Peck_, Rep. 22; Indiana, _H.I. Miller_; Massachusetts, _Sprague_; California; West Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, _McIlvaine_. Edible. _Curtis._ Grows upon standing and fallen timber which is attacked by decay. Fir, oak, beech, ash, birch, hickory and other trees are inhabited by it. August to frost. This beautiful species can not be mistaken for any other. Its name is the best guide to its identification. Dame Nature has made many exquisite decorations for herself and this is one of them. It is generally eaten, but is rare. Professor Peck speaks affectionately of it as a gratuitous adjunct to his bill of fare when on botanical tramps in the Adirondacks. =H. caput-ur´si= Fr.—bear-head. 6–8 in. high, 6–8 in. across. Tufts usually pendulous, compact, white, becoming yellow and brownish. =Spines= up to 1 in. long, round, pointed. =Branches= in every direction, short. Closely resembling H. coralloides and in small forms with shorter spines easily mistaken for it. Position of growth has much to do with its shape and appearance. On fallen timber the branchlets and spines may be erect. New York, _Peck_, 44th Rep.; North Carolina, _Curtis_; West Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, _McIlvaine_. Edible. _Curtis._ Edible. _Peck._ Hydnum caput-ursi is common in West Virginia forests. It is conspicuous on standing oaks, and at a distance a puzzling object to one not familiar with such excrescences. It grows on standing oaks near Haddonfield, N.J., and sparsely at Mt. Gretna, Pa. It is more compact, and is tougher than H. coralloides and H. Medusæ, but cooks tender and is very good. [Illustration: Photographed by Dr. J.R. Weist. PLATE CXXXV. HYDNUM CAPUT-MEDUSÆ. ] =H. caput-Medu´sæ= Bull.—head of Medusæ. (Plate CXXXV.) 3–18 in. across, 2–8 in. high. Tufts pendulous. White then grayish. Body compact, tapering to a solid base, more or less stem-like. =Spines= covering entire surface. Those upon top are long, thin, straight or distorted, growing shorter around and to the under side where they are short and straight. The wavy appearance of the slender spines remind of the snaky locks of Medusa, hence the name. Edible. _Curtis._ Edible. _Leuba._ On elms at Haddonfield, N.J.; on oaks at Mt. Gretna, Pa., and in Woodland Cemetery, and on elms in Washington Square, Philadelphia, Pa. _McIlvaine._ Commonly eaten in Italy and parts of Austria; rare elsewhere in Europe. Occurring over the United States. Specimens eighteen inches across were seen by the writer in the West Virginia mountains. Mr. H.I. Miller, Terre Haute, Ind., sent me a fine specimen weighing 10½ pounds. The American species, as far as seen by the writer, changes to a light yellow when ageing. The entire fungus is edible and excellent, but the tender spines and more delicate parts make a dish equaled by few fungi. =H. erina´ceum= Bull.—_erinaceus_, a hedgehog. 2–8 in. and more across. Tufts pendulous. White and yellowish-white becoming yellow-brownish, fleshy, elastic, tough, sometimes emarginate (broadly attached as if tuft was cut in two, sliced off where attached), a mass of latticed branches and fibrils. =Spines= 1½-4 in. long, crowded, straight, equal, pendulous. =Stem= sometimes rudimentary. On trunks of oak, beech, etc. July to October. =Spores= subglobose, 5–6µ diameter _Massee_; white, plain, 5×6µ _W.G.S._ Alabama, _Miss K. Skehan_; Pennsylvania, _McIlvaine_; Massachusetts, _Sprague_; New York, _Peck_, Rep. 22. Eaten in Germany and France. _Cooke._ A dead beech trunk at Eagle’s Mere, Pa., in August, 1898, bore at least fifty pounds of it. It draped one side of the tree from root to top with yellowish, pendulous tufts, with spines up to 3 in. long, which waved in the wind. The spines and tender parts were stewed, and enjoyed by many. It shrinks very much in drying, becoming sour. A´PUS. _Gr_—without; a foot. (Stemless, dimidiate, margin distinct.) =H. septentriona´le= Fr.—Northern. Fleshy-fibrous, becoming pale, imbricated. =Pilei= not numerous, growing one above the other, plane, behind thick, consolidated, margin straight, whole. =Spines= very crowded, slender, equal. The largest known Hydnum. Received from E.B. Sterling, Trenton, N.J., September, 1897. The specimens formed part of a dense fasciculate mass weighing over 20 pounds, growing on a beech stump. Edges of the young plant are edible, but have little taste. [Illustration] =IR´PEX= Fr. A harrow. Hymenium inferior, toothed from the first. Teeth firm, somewhat coriaceous, acute, concrete with the pileus, arranged in rows or like network, connected at the base by folds, which are gill-like (in sessile species) or resemble honeycomb (in resupinate ones). Sporophores 4-spored. Growing on wood, somewhat growing from the side or upon the back, approaching Lenzites and Dædaleæ. Irpex differs from Hydnum in having the spines connected at the base, and in their being less awl-shaped and pointed. It is reported as found well up in the northern States, but its species prefer warm climates. Irpex contains no choice species, but all I have tested can be eaten. =I. obli´quus= Fr.—oblique. White, inclining to pale, effused (spread), forming an adnate crust, circumference flaxy. Teeth _extended from a base resembling honeycomb, compressed, unequal, incised_, oblique, 2–3 lines long. At first abundantly porous, but toothed from the first, at length quite as in Hydna. On stumps and dead branches. November to February. _Stevenson._ This spreads in irregular patches on the surface of decaying wood. The pores for a small space round the margin are round and distinct, but toward the center are greatly lengthened out, lying one upon another in an imbricated manner. The color is white at first, when old it changes to a yellow-brown, and at last to a dirty fuscous black. _Bolton._ At first it looks more like a small white orbicular resupinate Polyporus than an Irpex. _Peck._ The species is common and can be collected at most times of the year. When fresh and moist it can be shaved from its host plant. Goodly quantities can thus be obtained. It stews to a firm gelatinous mass of pleasant flavor. The lost hunter need not die of starvation in any woods if he will but study the tree-growing fungi, and especially the small species, hitherto insignificant in food circles. =I. car´neus= Fr.—resembling the color of flesh. Reddish, effused, 1–3 in. long, _cartilaginous-gelatinous_, membranaceous, adnate. Teeth obtuse and awl-shaped, entire, united at the base. It inclines to Radula and Phlebia. _Stevenson._ On tulip poplar, Haddonfield, N.J., September, 1892; on hickory, Angora, Philadelphia, September, 1897. _McIlvaine._ The entire fungus is good, cooking like a Hydnum. =I. defor´mis= Fr.—deformed. White, effused, crustaceous, thin, circumference pubescent, somewhat flaxy. Teeth _extended in awl-shape from a minutely porous base, thin_, somewhat digitato-incised (cut in finger-shape), 1–2 lines long. _Fries._ It approaches the Polypori. Grows on wood. _Stevenson._ North Carolina, _Schweinitz_, _Curtis_; Massachusetts, _Frost_. Common on stumps and trees. The awl-shaped teeth, which have the appearance of shreds, can be scraped from the fresh plant, or if dried plants are moistened, the teeth are detachable, and are food-giving. =I. fusco-vioia´ceus= Fr.—_fuscus_, brown; _violaceous_, violet. =Pileus= 2 in. long, more than 1 in. broad, _white inclining to hoary_, effuso-reflexed, coriaceous, silky, zoned. Teeth in rows in the form of plates, _brownish-violet_, incised at the apex. _Fries._ On pine trunks. _Stevenson._ Decaying trunks of spruce, abies nigra. Adirondack mountains. July. Our specimens are not “silky,” as required by the description, but villose or tomentose-villose as in Polyporus hirsutus and P. abietinus, the latter of which this species closely resembles. The hymenium, however, is coarser, more highly colored and lamellated to such an extent that young specimens might easily be taken for a Lenzites. _Peck_, 30th Rep. N.Y. State Bot. Found in West Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. _McIlvaine._ Very common on logs of coniferous trees. It is difficult to collect it entirely free from resin, which as a seasoning is not recommended. FAMILY IV.—=THELEPHORA´CEÆ= Fr. _Gr_—a teat; _Gr_—to bear. =Sporophore= erect and stipitate, with a central stem, effused, with the upper portion free and bent backward, or entirely resupinate. =Hymenium= perfectly even or radiately wrinkled, glabrous or minutely bristled with projecting cystidia; basidia normally 4-spored. =Spores= without a division, colorless or colored. _Massee._ In Thelephoraceæ are shapes closely resembling those found in Hydnaceæ, Polyporaceæ and Agaricaceæ. The genus Craterellus is closely allied to Cantharellus, and, though the spore surface is much less wrinkled or veined, resembles it in several of its species. Other types show likeness to Merulius in Polyporaceæ; others to Tremellineæ and Clavariaceæ. Many puzzles are presented by its species, but the solving is interesting. Though populous it contains but few edibles. The best of them is Craterellus cornucopoides. SYNOPSIS OF GENERA. _A._ SPORES COLORED. _Spores smooth._ CONIOPHORA. Resupinate, dry and pulverulent. (No edible species reported.) ALDRIDGEA. Resupinate, soft and subgelatinous. (No edible species reported.) _Spores warted or echinulate._ THELEPHORA. Dry and fibrous, hymenium rugulose. (No edible species reported.) SOPPITTELLA. Subgelatinous, effused or variously incrusting, hymenium even. (No edible species reported.) _B._ SPORES COLORLESS. _Parasitic on living leaves or stems._ EXOBASIDIUM. Saprophytes growing on dead wood, branches, etc. Hymenium minutely setulose with projecting cystidia. PENIOPHORA. Cystidia colorless, rough at the tip with particles of lime. (No edible species reported.) HYMENOCHÆTE. Cystidia brown, smooth. (No edible species reported.) _Hymenium glabrous._ CORTICIUM. Entirely resupinate, hymenium usually cracked when dry. (No edible species reported.) STEREUM. Effuso-reflexed, pileus silky or strigose, hymenium even. (No edible species reported.) CLADODERRIS. Horizontal and attached by a narrow point behind, hymenium radiato-rugulose. (No edible species reported.) CRATERELLUS. Page 508. Large, erect, funnel-shaped. CYPHELLA. Minute, cup-shaped, mouth open. (No edible species reported.) SOLENIA. Minute, cylindrical, gregarious or crowded, tubular, mouth contracted. (No edible species reported.) =CRATEREL´LUS= Fr. _Crater_, a bowl. =Hymenium= waxy-membranaceous, distinct but adnate to the hymenophore, inferior, continuous, smooth, even or wrinkled. =Spores= white. _Fries._ This, the only genus of Thelephoraceæ containing edible fungi, has the form and general appearance of Cantharellus to which it is allied, but it is distinguished by its nearly even hymenium, which in Cantharellus has the form of gills, fold-like and thick but still distinctly gills. The species vary from fleshy to membranaceous, all having a funnel-shaped pileus and stem merging into it. On the ground. Autumn. The slightly veined surface where the spores are borne, and the spores themselves, when a microscope is brought to bear upon them, distinguish this genus from Cantharellus; and its thin flesh and funnel-shape from the large forms of Pistillaria. Several of the species are edible. It is probable that all are. Toadstools, despite their name, are more popularly associated with fairies than with toads. “Fairy rings,” “Fairy Bread” and “Fairy Clubs” are titles belonging to them, and these link us to the pretty belief of childhood—a belief we often do not outgrow. A group of C. lutescens or C. cornucopoides may well be likened to fairy trumpets, or to a tiny orchestrion thrusting its horns through wood earth where roots of stumps abound. =C. cantharel´lus= Schw. (Plate XLVI, fig. 3.) =Cap=n. across, convex, often becoming depressed and funnel-shaped, glabrous, yellowish or pinkish-yellow. =Flesh= white, tough, elastic. =Hymenium= slightly wrinkled, yellow or faint salmon color. =Stem= 1–3 in. high, 3–5 lines thick, glabrous, solid, yellow. =Spores= on white paper yellowish or pale salmon. =Spores= 7.5–10×5–6µ _Peck_. West Virginia, _McIlvaine_. No one not looking for minute botanic details would separate this species from Cantharellus cibarius, especially if found growing near or with it. The pinkish tinge sometimes present in C. cantharellus I have never observed in C. cibarius. The present species is of equal excellence. [Illustration: Grouped by Val Starnes—Studies by C. McIlvaine. PLATE CXXXVI.] FIG. PAGE. FIG. PAGE.